Clinical Research Original Article:

The Editor’s tricks

Shahrokh F. Shariat, M.D.

Associate Professor of Urology and Medical OncologyDirector, Bladder Cancer Outcomes and Translational Research

Director, Urologic Oncology Fellowship Program

Weill Cornell Medical University and New York Presbyterian Hospital

Disclosures

• Advisory board of Ferring Pharmaceuticals

• Method to determine prognosis after therapy for prostate cancerGranted 2002-09-06

• Methods to determine prognosis after therapy for bladder cancerGranted 2003-06-19

• Prognostic methods for patients with prostatic diseaseGranted 2004-08-05

• Soluble Fas urinary marker for the detection of bladder transitional cell carcinomaGranted 2010-07-20

Tips and tricks to being a successful author (1)

• Obtain the instructions for authors from the journal website

• Obtain a recent reference to see style

• Note the word count! – they mean it

• Number of figures, tables and references

Tips and tricks to being a successful author (2)

• Take written notes highlighting the most important concepts

• Understand which areas need to be better clarified by your article

• Understand which areas do not need to be further explored (Everything that does not need to be explored further)

• Take note of best sentences (of value especially for non-native English speaking authors)

Carefully search for the recent literature on the topic of interest

- Usually one needs to read at least all the abstracts of papers devoted to the topic over the last 5 years

- Select the best papers and read them carefully. You will choose your final references from this group.

- You do not all the articles on the subject as most journals now accept only a limited number of references

- List the concepts investigated in these papers.

-Verify whether your study is providing you with at least the same amount of data.

Tips and tricks to being a successful author (4)

• Have a list of consecutive bullet points ready prior to writing the text

• Check if concepts expressed in each bullet point are leading logically to the subsequent one

• Avoid repeating the same concepts twice!

• Avoid jumping ahead and backwards!

Tips and tricks to being a successful author (5)

• Write the results section first! - Describe your findings in the clearest & most concise

way.• Write the methods section next.

- The methods should explain how you obtained your results! - Describe only the methods which allowed you to obtain the results that you have described!

• Then write the introduction. You need to explain to the reader why you decided to do your study and why you think it is worthy reporting the results!

Tips and tricks to being a successful author (6)

• Then, the discussion. Be critical against your own results but in a clever way: - Highlight limitations of your study (if any) and suggest justifications!

- Highlight the merits of your study and suggest long-term reflections starting from these!

• Finally, write the abstract: you can easily use sentences from the various sections of the manuscript

• By writing the abstract at the end you will not run the risk of reporting on a result in the abstract text but not in the results section!

9

Responding to reviewers’ comments

• Address each comment individually in the written resubmission

• Number and respond courteously to every comment

• Mark changes in text

• You do not have to make all changes if you disagree with them – present a valid argument

• Don’t argue with the reviewer, both reviewers and authors are trying to improve things for the reader

Thank you

Sfshariat@gmail.com